The Cotic Rocket looks like nothing else. And it outperforms every other eeb out there.
- Brand: Cotic
- Product: Rocket
- From: Cotic
- Price: from £7,599*
- Tested by: Benji (and others) for a month
*The bike tested was essentially the Di2 version of the Gold build which starts at £8,799. Cotic can also do a frame/shock/drive system option – where a rider can swap all their bits onto an ebike frame – for £5,999.
Pros
- Flexibility (in every sense)
- Sorted geometry
- Offers everything that actually matters
Cons
- Cost
- Unconventional aesthetic
Our rating
Yes, this bike technically launched in 2024. But it launched in November 2024. In other words, too late to factor in our end-of-year round-up stuff.
Also, back in November ’24, I only had a few hours playtime on the new Cotic Rocket. Enough to give me a sneaking feeling that it was easily the most capable Cotic mountain bike ever. As November 2025 approached, I requested the Cotic Rocket back in for a proper test period. I was not disappointed.
The claim that the Rocket is the most capable Cotic ever may sound rather unsurprising – seeing as it has a motor – but I’m not just talking about climbing capability. Although it is an extremely adept ascender; steeper actual seat tube, longer chain stays and grippy rear suspension in full effect. It is its capability on descents and traverses that is also a step up from any analogue Cotic I’ve ridden before.
If you’ve followed Cotic over the years you’ll probably have noticed that it doesn’t really release bad bikes. It also doesn’t really release ‘safe’, conservative or retro-minded bikes either.
First and foremost a Cotic bike is designed to handle well. It is also designed to be easy to live with. You’ll not see any cabling passing through headsets on a Cotic.
And it is absolutely because of its steel tube fabrication that it rides the fantastic way it does. Going from the Rocket back to other ebikes is revelatory. All other eebs ride feel ‘dead’ – in a chassis sense – compared to the Rocket. I’ve aways been of the opinion that the down tube is the single most important tube on a bike in terms of dictating ride feel. The fact the the down tube of the Rocket is not a drainpipe-sized bit of metal or carbon is significant.
Anyone who’s been on any bike website with a story about the Cotic Rocket on it can’t fail to have noticed the haters. The main contentious aspect of the Rocket. That externally mounted battery.
It is not an ‘old fashioned’ location for a battery. It is not a ‘cheaper’ location for a battery. It is not the ‘easiest’ location for a battery. Cotic has gone with an externally mounted battery because it is the best location. It is the best location from a flexibility point of view.
And I mean flexibility in every sense.
The easy-on easy-off nature of the external battery makes it possible to choose what battery to run (Cotic has 418Wh, 504Wh or 630Wh option). You have flexibility in terms of what weight-to-range ratio you wish to run. Run the lower capacity and have a considerably lighter bike. Or go all in with the 630Wh for big mileage days.
And not having a whacking great down tube means you can actually have some compliance in your frame. There is no point in a Cotic that doesn’t offer controlled chassis flex. Compliance is the whole flipping USP of the brand.
Aluminium e-bikes with internally mounted batteries housed in oversized down tubes are incredibly stiff. So are most carbon e-bikes with similar designs. Not all carbon ebikes, mind. Some are okay. But not everyone wants carbon fibre.
I’d actually say that having the external battery weight where it is on the Cotic Rocket is pretty much the ideal spot for it. A lot of brands may state that having the battery nearer the bottom bracket is beneficial as it’s “low and central” but I’ve not found that to be the case.
First of all, the BB is not the centre of the bike (the centre of the wheelbase is the centre of the bike). And secondly, low slung weight can make bikes handle worse; like you’ve got an anchor between your ankles. Having the battery weight basically at the midpoint between your feet (BB) and your hands (cockpit) is a good thing in my experience. It makes traction much more predictable and controllable and also improves the bike’s turn-in feel.
So yeah. I’m a big fan of the externally mounted battery. I have frequently bemoaned the move away from them.
Before we get on to the bike handling stuff, let’s go in to the motorspeak. The Shimano EP801 should probably have been given a whole new number name. It is not the same as the previous EP8. It has the same headline power numbers (85Nm of torque, 600 watts peak power) but it’s quieter both when delivering power and when coasting (there’s minimal rattle). Anecdotally the EP801 is way more reliable too.
One thing that really stands out about Shimano motors is their fuel economy. For the same capacity battery and same Nm/watts stats, we get more range out of a Shimano system than any other. Obviously, ‘your mileage may vary’ (as they say) depending on a whole swathe of variables but for us, Shimano are the rulers of range. The modest 504Wh battery is very possibly all most people will ever need.
I don’t think there’s any magic to this fuel economy. I think it’s just a by-product of Shimano motors not giving you maximum assist levels as eagerly/early as other motor brands do. You do get 85Nm/600w, just not as frequently as, say, with a Bosch motor. I haven’t yet ridden an EP801 with the new ‘Race’ firmware, which may make things a bit more Bosch-y (with an attendant loss in mpg too no doubt).
I like the Shimano bar remote. Simple, two-buttons. I kinda like the beside-the-stem display from a size and location point of view but I just wish the specced display would show the current time permanently (instead of defaulting back to current speed after a minute or two). The Shimano EN600 (I think) display with its customisable multiple screens would be a good option.
I will admit that I find the five-blocks battery level indication rather crude on the specced display. I also do wish that Shimano wouldn’t make the motor go into ‘limp mode’ quite so early in its battery depletion level.
On the whole though, I’m a big fan of the way Shimano motors feel. They feel much more like an extension of yourself, with no surprises, nor any underwhelming delivery.
The overall sensation of riding the Cotic Rocket was that it was very similar to the analogue Cotic RocketMAX but with even more calmness and grip. And more standover by virtue of the improved seatpost insertion from the revised rear suspension layout. Cotic’s Droplink suspension design has been… er, dropped. The new design (without a pivot passing through the seat tube and limiting dropper insertion) is called Rocklink.
The Rocket ducked and dived into all of the more challenging trails and pretty soon felt like the best bike I’d ever ridden, full stop. E or otherwise.
I rode the Rocket everything and anything. For most test rides I ran the 504Wh battery, with the motor in Boost mode, with mud tyres on front and rear. This setup was perfect for my standard 20km (700m climbing) local looping. Running a less OTT set-up (Trail mode and normal tyres) I could easily get over 1,000m of climbing out of the battery. It’s worth mentioning that ground conditions – and tyre dragginess – have a significant effect on an e-bike’s range.
I did also get hold of an additional battery (630Wh). This gave approximately 20% more range than the 504Wh battery. And due to the easy-swap nature of the Rocket’s battery location, it is possible to do some huge rides using both batteries. Either by circling back to the start point to swap batteries, or carrying one in a backpack. Without being overly cagey with the support modes (ie. keeping it to Trail with occasional Boost-ings) you can do 2,000+ metres of climbing.
Overall
In terms of what matters, the Cotic Rocket is a total winner. Great geometry – the best geometry from Cotic so far in my opinion. An impressively retained classic Cotic chassis feel. Super suspension. Good motor. Excellent range. Impressive overall weight for a capable full power eMTB (21.7kg for a larger size bike). Oh yes, it ain’t cheap. But that is literally the price you pay for getting things made in the UK. Regardless, the Cotic Rocket was easily the best eMTB of the past 12 months.
Cotic Rocket specification
- Frame // Reynolds 853 steel w/ alloy chain stays, 150mm
- Shock // Cane Creek DB Air IL G2, 185x55mm Trunnion
- Fork // Rock Shox Lyrik w/ custom damper, 160mm
- Wheels // Reserve Alloy MX
- Front tyre // Various
- Rear tyre // Various
- Chainset // Shimano
- Drivetrain // Shimano XT Di2
- Brakes // Magura MT7 Pro, 203/203mm
- Stem // Cotic SHORTERSTEM, 35mm, 35mm
- Bars // Cotic Calver
- Grips // Cotic Lock-on
- Seatpost // One-Up V3 Dropper
- Saddle // WTB
- Motor // Shimano EP801, 85Nm
- Battery // 504Wh (and 630Wh)
- Size tested // C5
- Sizes available // C1, C2, C3, C4, C5
- Weight // 21.7kg (504Wh battery)
Geometry of our size C4
- Head angle // 64°
- Effective seat angle // 76.5°
- Seat tube length // 450mm
- Head tube length // 130mm
- Effective top tube // 654mm
- BB height // 36mm BB drop (from front wheel)
- Reach // 495mm
- Chainstay // 456mm
- Wheelbase // 1,306mm
Speaking as someone who’s had a couple of cotics and is a fan of the brand, I was pretty shocked at how bad it looked when it first came out, but I think I’ve gotten use to the looks a bit as it doesn’t seem quite so bad now. But, if I had £9k to drop on an ebike it’s definitely not going to be one that has an EP8 motor with a 500wh battery. It almost feels like the bike came out a bit too early and maybe if it had come out late this year with an Avinox motor we’d be less focussed on the looks.
Exactly why I’ve bought bikes without motors/batteries the last few times. Weirdly the battery is much less noticeable IRL and, subject to Athertons next release, this is top of my e-bike list.
I wasn’t really a fan of how it looked when I first saw it, but I’ve changed my mind on that a bit now. It looks no worse than a normal bike with bottles and tool wraps etc strapped to it, and that’s before we get on to those hideous bikepacking style frame bags. And there are so many ugly ebikes that I don’t think this is even in the top 10. I also like the reasoning behind the external battery and it all makes sense to me. Most ebikes seem disposable to me, whilst this seems built to last. If I had anywhere near the cash to burn on an ebike it’d definitely be in my shortlist.
That said I think it’d probably be hard to pick this over an Amflow which does actually look like a normal bike and has what seems to be the best motor in the game, whilst not being obscenely heavy.
I suspect motor choice was more limited back when the design was being committed to. Plus which suppliers will offer motors in small enough quantities for a small brand like Cotic? I suspect many have minimum order volumes that are just too high or financially too committing for a small company.
@mboy
Nailed it. Nothing to add. Reply of the year?
Being a regular subscriber it does seem that testing bikes is not what the magazine is about anymore. Very few actual bike reviews, a few copy and paste marketing blurbs on the homepage, but not what the magazine used to be. Is that a choice for the magazine editor or because brands are less willing to lend them bikes and would rather give them to YouTubers.
Saw one of these at Peatys last year. Was actually nice looking in the flesh, but personally I’m not in the market for an EEB and I can’t justify the price of a Cotic, but completely understand that doesn’t mean they’re bad value for money.
I do wonder if the rest of their “acoustic" FS bikes will take the suspension design from their e-bike as to me it looks neater.
Fair play to a small company trying something different.
Plenty of reports that it’s pretty bang average at being a bike though, if that means anything to you.
Are people buying a mountain bike with a motor attached or a motor with a mountain bike attached. Surely geometry and ride quality is paramount and the motor is a bonus to get you to the top faster for the real fun(going down)
Lots of e-bike riders are people who have never been mountain bikers so yes they do speak in watts and torques and everything else is way down the list. I know loads of people who are lifelong Motocross and Enduro riders who have bought e-bikes so they can go exploring without getting in trouble.
I’m a bike nerd so I bought the weakest e-bike you can get but it rides like a dream. It’s within a few millimetres of my Edit MX with exactly the same suspension so it’s like having a motorised version of that bike.
I can see why it would outclass other e-bikes ride feel from the skinny steel tube standpoint.
It’s good to see a review focus on the bike/ride rather than a spec sheet pissing contest.
Would love to see this concept as a TQ light motor ebike – that actually could be ridden with no battery for uplift days etc. or a second backpack swappable battery for longer days.
Yeah, that’s why I would certainly want to test ride the Cotic, from what I’ve seen about it people say it rides like a normal bike with assistance. I’ve never actually ridden an ebike (kinda scared it would ruin normal bikes for me!) but the idea of having a big heavy and dead feeling bike on the descents just to save some time and effort on the climbs doesn’t really appeal.
I thought the same. Then I hired a Santa Cruz Vala for a day at the Golfie and on the descents there I couldn’t tell I was on a bike far, far heavier than what I normally ride. Plus you could sail up to the top with pretty much zero effort v a normal bike and in the end did a hell of a lot more riding than I’d normally do in a day up there. Would I want one as my only bike? No. Will I get one for the winch & plummet type stuff I enjoy and do probably more than anything else? Maybe. I can see the benefits at somewhere with a fairly big elevation like the Tweed Valley but my local riding is far flatter with even the biggest climbs being no more than 10 minutes or so. Will probably take the risk with something used rather than spunk £5k+ on something I may rarely use.
‘I do wonder if the rest of their “acoustic" FS bikes will take the suspension design from their e-bike as to me it looks neater.’
According to the review it’s the best handling bike ever , eeb or otherwise. So I’d expect cotic to take this geometry , and add some dead weight to the down tube.
The looks have grown on me tbh, though its a moot point as A: I’m don’t want an ebike and B: The cost (though that applies to most eebs imo)
Problem is, plenty of others do but they seem to be going out of fashion and getting phased out as full fat bikes get lighter. The vast majority of the heavily discounted E-Bikes have smaller batteries and motors from what I saw when looking.
Well, that’s the advantage of the external battery here… fit a smaller battery if you want… or bigger… on the same bike. The Shimano motor is well suited to having those options as well, can be very efficient when using a small battery, but plenty of usable torque if you’re going to treat it as a “full fat” ebike.
I’d generally agree… But why compromise when arguably you can have both? So many eBikes now (ok, not anything with an 800Wh Bosch battery inside the down tube I’ll grant you) are way more lithe than those of only a few years ago. In fact, if you look at something like the Unno Mith, or arguably even my Canyon Neuron OnFly, the average person would be hard pressed to tell they were eBikes at all from more than a couple of metres away, such has the packaging improved on eBikes in general over the last few years…
It is fine… But it’s what the best eMTB manufacturers were doing 8yrs ago already… Things have moved on…
Which is absolutely commendable, and will win them plaudits from their die hard fans… Still doesn’t mean it’s objectively better than a wealth of other new eMTB’s on the market though does it!
All other things being equal (but they very, rarely are, Cannondale didn’t leave the wall thickness the same when they started creating massively oversized tubes now did they!), then yes the tube stiffness goes up as a cube of the diameter. But we’re not comparing apples with apples here are we… How many other steel eBikes on the market? How many other eBikes still operating with an external battery on the market? My Mondraker Crafty has one of the bulkier downtubes of the current eBike crop for sure, being that it’s designed to house an 800Wh Bosch battery (which is shorter and more squat than the 750Wh it replaces)… It’s a carbon frame that has obviously been optimised to give the characteristics required of a 160mm travel, 25kg “Enduro" eBike… I certainly don’t find it too stiff. In fact, in Brian Cahal’s review of it
they talk about it being the “Baby Bear’s Porridge" (just right) compared to some of the other bikes on test that are stiffer, or flexier by comparison… So it absolutely doesn’t mean that the right level of compliance can’t be built into a modern oversized, carbon bike frame design if required… That said, I was arguing that 35/36mm stanchion single crown forks weren’t stiff enough at 160+mm of travel anyway, and was grateful that the big boys moved to 38mm and a substantial improvement in stiffness ensued (dual crowns would be ace, but obviously, very heavy)… There are a few riders out there bemoaning the weight of modern long travel bikes, but at 95kg myself suited and booted and not one of the smoothest riders, I’m more concerned about not breaking it than ride compliance.
These aren’t road bikes of decades past on 23mm tyres, or skinny tubed XC bikes with little or no suspension… For the type of riding that the “Enduro" category describes, motorised or not, these bikes need a strong (stiff!) platform to hang their 160mm or so of suspension from at both ends, 2.4″+ tyres etc… It’s not really the frames job to be compliant, when you have that much suspension and tyre there. OK, that’s an oversimplification because too stiff can still be horrible to ride even then, but it’s why I’d argue keeping away from carbon rims is more important as a rule, allowing a degree of compliance from the wheels without sacrificing strength. Certainly there’s a LOT more compliance to come from a 2.5″ tyre, a 29er rim, and 160mm of suspension all working together, than there is the difference between an oversized carbon frame built to house a big battery and a 34.9/38.1mm tubed 853 steel frame.
I’m a fan of steel bikes in general by the way… The smaller the tyres, the bigger the frame material makes a difference to the ride quality… In fact, 3 of my last 4 road bikes have been made from steel, and the current one (Condor Super Acciaio) is probably the perfect happy medium between the Ritchey Road Logic (which was lovely, if a little flexy with its skinny tubes and 1 1/8th steerer) and the Genesis (a former employer @jameso ?) Volare 853 which preceded it (which with oversized 853 round tubes, was one of the stiffest steel frames out there)… The Condor has a similarly strong tubeset as 853 (Columbus Spirit HSS), but there is a lot more shaping going on to provide stiffness where it’s required and remove it where it is not, and I feel it’s a perfect happy medium for my tastes… On 28mm tyres… With no suspension… Riding on tarmac…
I had a Starling Murmur briefly, a year or so after they were launched… I just didn’t get it. It flexed way more than I was happy with for a bike of that type, and didn’t instil confidence. I know some people like this sensation (Nico Vouilloz famously used to get his mechanics to reduce the spoke tensions in his rear wheels to provide an extra degree of compliance), and maybe later bikes are stiffer than the early one I had, but it used to buzz the tyres on the stays whilst cornering and I could feel the vagueness from the front end compared to the carbon bike it replaced, and I wasn’t a fan of how it rode… Loved how it looked, but it was very much a “form over function" bike in my view.
Again… Commendable as far as their loyal customers are concerned… But this approach has a very limited appeal for the wider market, even amongst those of us who are still far more concerned with how a bike rides than the horsepower pissing wars that have dominated the eBike market again lately! And that is, once again, assuming that everyone wants a flexier steel bike for said application… Which many of us simply won’t!
In principle, I don’t disagree. But it does depend on what you want your eBike for… If the person buying an eBike is already a diehard Cotic fan, and just wants an eBike to add more elevation to their rides (so probably isn’t bothered by the latest and greatest motor system, only that it has one at all), then they will love it… The appeal with this bike lies ONLY for the diehard Cotic fan who hasn’t owned or ridden an eBike before IMO… Because for anyone who isn’t a diehard fan, or has owned or ridden eBikes before, there is a wealth of other great eBikes out there, many of which are also prioritising the ride feel over and above the motor performance… And this is my point…
Arguably Cy has done exactly the right thing… He’s recognised his market for what it is… If he tried to make a more mainstream eBike it would dilute his personal touch on it. Creating the bike he has, has meant he’ll probably sell a useful number to diehard Cotic fans who “get" what he’s doing with it…
But it still doesn’t mean, in any way shape or form, that it’s objectively “better" than a great many other eMTB’s that have come to market in 2025…
For sure… Most of the established brands do this very well now anyway, and some exceptionally well… Gone are the days when an eMTB was defined by a BB height that needed a step ladder to mount it, along with a crazily short and steep front end that they mostly exhibited when compared to their unpowered Enduro counterparts when the market was in its infancy… Were we judging a bike purely on its descending prowess, then arguably the presence of a motor at all does nothing (in fact, it probably takes a little away) for the performance of the bike… eBikes have a motor, and a battery, and whether the performance of that system only makes up for 10% of the score, or 90% of it, or anywhere inbetween… There are plenty of “discerning riders" bikes on the market now, they mostly just happen to have more up to date/in vogue motor systems fitted too… When all other things are level, the performance of the motor/battery system can make the difference.
As, subjectively, will the looks…
the bearing life on my old occam were excellent, once in four years and they weren’t even that bad
That’s a lot of words @mboy just to say you don’t agree…..
He does get a little carried away but to be fair that is a lot of words to explain exactly why he doesn’t agree.
Hmmm. Assuming there was a rider on it, you’d be able to tell 😉
For the sake of balance I’ll say that the bearings and pivots in my occams were utterly shit. The bike was brilliant to ride and carry in almost every way but the bloody racket and the stripped main bearing threads were a bit of a downer.
I dropped the hammer and bought a Moterra SL last summer, great bike………BUT, I’ve spent a small fortune getting the spec to where I wanted it. Fair enough (gulp!), but no range extender. I even emailed Cannondale and got a definite No as an answer, now or ever. Which I’m a bit peeved about seeing as big all mountain days I’m a fan of. So as a frame only option, and one that’s been touted by journos as having something special about it. I would have seriously considered this as a frame only. Looks? Couldn’t give a monkey’s over that nonsense. Proofs in the pudding.
I actually like the concept, but having been an early shimano motor adopter I won’t be going there again and also I’m slightly confused by what looks like an attempt to make a less integrated/more user maintainable bike (*imho a very good thing) with what seems to be the least well supported and maintainable engine, also 21.7 might be lightish for full fat it’s not as light as I want. (After an exe I’ve gone cube sl, Bosch sx, 16.2alledged kg)
@mboy,
It’s a valid point on the objective stuff of e-MTB spec, but we don’t buy bikes for objective reasons and bikes don’t stand out for only those reasons.
I was making 2 points really. One is Cotic are smart in appealing to a small number of riders wanting something different, rather than fighting in the scrum of all the big brands doing e-MTB. Red/blue ocean stuff.
Second is how reviews are often personal and subjective and the thinking behind that is what can make it more interesting to read than a lab report. It’s not about data or tech newness here, it’s about a bike that by all accounts rides great (#1 priority) and is a standout product in the market for various reasons that make it interesting, inspiring even. I could go into a rant about the state of the industry and how hard it is for smaller brands right now but I won’t. I’ll just say this bike makes me smile and I want to see it selling in sufficient numbers for Cotic carve to out a niche that is (imho and my perception) 2 fingers at the large chunk of the industry that is blindly marching toward a cliff edge.
Not as mainstream bikes from big brands, no. They still have a following though, people who are more fans of those bikes than most new bikes. Small brands who create those loyal fan clubs rather than follow the mainstream tend to do OK.
FWIW The ‘steel for race bikes?’ Q was a discussion with Reynolds when we made some early 953 frames but I didn’t stay long enough to be part of the team and steel or carbon race bikes era.